The Determination of Protein Digestibility and Availability in Vitro

The biological testing of proteins before feed formulation, although desirable in terms of economy of protein useage; is often precluded by the time and money required to mount such assays, so it is not surprising that much work has gone into developing laboratory methods (Raynor and Fox 1976; Saunders and Kohler, 1972). An important determinant of quality is digestibility and many methods have been offered for its determination in vitro (Scheffner et al. 1956; Akeson and Stahman, 1964; Kerese, 1976 and many others). These methods depend on the use of proteolytic enzymes to simulate the digestive processes of the .animal.